Courtney and I flew into DC for a 5 night trip. Checked into our hotel quickly and headed for the subway.We headed down to the waterfront to check out that new growing neighborhood. Lots of new buildings going up and of course everyone is super young. Had a drink at Blue Jacket and then walked around checking out the dining options and ended up going back to Blue Jacket for dinner as we liked it.We hopped back on the Metro and got to the mall just as the sun was going down.It turned out to be a picture perfect evening.Nighttime is always the best time to check out the monuments.tired selfie
Hanging out on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a few other people.Had the Viet Nam memorial to ourselves. Always emotional.I love the DC Metro and our station was deeeeeep
Wednesday, May 30th, 2018
Courtney had a conference to attend but it didn’t start until 10:00 so we had a quick Starbucks breakfast and then went for a long walk around the neighborhood we were staying in – Woodley Park, heading down to Embassy Row ogling at the big embassies and saying hello to Nelson Mandela.Once Courtney took off for her conference I started walking down towards Georgetown. I like these lime green liriope.The neighborhood we stayed in had beautiful houses everywhere.I ended up somehow walking through this amazing park……with staircases leading to secret gardens (that I would discover the next day).An oasis in the middle of the cityI eventually did ended up in Georgetown somehow and went to Tudor House to tour the gardens.It was an old estate with a beautiful old sprawling garden.lots of boxwood everywherenote to self: nice option for a hose inside a wine barrel thingy
little garden spots were around every corner
So nicethe houses in the Georgetown neighborhood were amazingI had lunch at Pizzeria Paradiso in downtown Georgetown.I figured out the bus system and bussed downtown. I sat in the sculpture garden and took a break from the humid weather.The Smithsonian Museum of Art was my destination to check out the Cezanne exhibit that was there.The exhibit was focused on his portraits. It was amazing.cut through to the modern wingfell upon a whole room of Modiglianis – my fav.One of my fav painting in person. So cool.Went out to dinner with a big group to Roofers Union in Adams Morgan. Sat a long table with a view of the bustling streetCourtney and stayed after dinner and had another drink on their rooftop patio with the rest of the youngsters.
Thursday, May 31st, 2018
I started my day at the Renwick Gallery that had an exhibition of works from Burning Man.Their large formal gallery was installed with all different balsa wood cutouts to look like a temple.They encouraged everyone to write on everything.I like the Renwick because the museum is different every time you go there.Strolled past the White house after the museum. Trump helping any country…. ha ha ha… that’s a good one. Trump helping anyone besides himself… thats a good one. OK – enough of that.Bussed back down to Georgetown area to visit Dumbarton Oaks.I toured the amazing gardens.more pea gravel transitionsL’OrangerieAmazing spots everywhere
more nice brick edging
boxwood everywhereliriope edging… coming to a garden near you soon
Courtney went out to dinner with colleagues and I met Ellen and Wally downtown at Central. We had a nice dinner – had hanger steak et frites – and caught up with them which was great. I also stopped in for a peak at Trump Hotel in the old Post Office building that he RUINED. More security than actual guests and just as tacky as you would imagine.
Friday, June 1st, 2018
breakfasted al fresco at a little place down the streetI walked to the zoo that was just a few blocks from our hotel and then walked toward the National Cathedral.The Bishop’s garden there was another beautiful formal garden.
I likes this purple and green border. The plant in front is called ‘Pentagon: Dark towers bearded tongue’.
They were still doing repairs on the cathedral as a result of damage from the earthquake a few years ago.I met Courtney for a late lunch.Chilled out by the nice pool for awhile.and then headed to the Smithsonian African American museum that we got tickets for months ago.It was an interesting museum packed full of stuff.The building was beautiful.We were there for 2 1/2 hours before it closed and only got through about half of it.We walked down the mall and were happy to be there for Friday Jazz in the garden.Lots of people enjoying the hot weather and cool jazz.
We went to Zaytinya, a Jose Andres tapas place for dinner. We sat outside and had a really great dinner trying all sorts of different things.Back on the Metro after a busy day.
Saturday, June 2nd, 2018
Jack and Ximena arrive in DC in the morning and we met them at the Hotel Harrington where they were spending the night. We quickly walked over to the Portrait Gallery but had to make a side track to In and Out as the museum didn’t open to 11:00.Henrietta LacksPowerful Obama portrait. Can’t wait to see what the Trump one will be…Mrs Obama looking coolThe portrait gallery is in the over 100 year old patent building. great museum.
took a quick stroll through the National Galleryand the Hirschornwhere we saw this sad looking guy
Courtney and I had tickets for the Holocaust museum and were there for about two hours and then met back up with J and X at Dupont Circle.We had drinks and appetizers at a South American place and then had pizza down the street at another Pizza Paradiso. Said goodbye and headed back.
Saturday, June 2nd 2018
We had a mid morning flight back to CLE and made it home with no troubles. Another great trip.
We haven’t been down to Miami to visit Grace all year so we planned a weekend getaway and it turned into a great party. Courtney and I, my Mom and Dad and Emily Jane took off from Euclid at 10:00AM with a car packed full of food and toys. We stopped at Wolf Ridge Brewery in Downtown Columbus for lunch. We had a great lunch: my Mom and I had the vanilla coffee cream ale -the reason to stop there, and Dad had the Heferweisen. Courtney and I split celery root soup and a salmon burger, Dad had an Italian sub and EJG and Mom had the chicken sandwich. A great place. It was just about a 2 hour drive to Oxford from Columbus and we checked into our two cabins at Hueston Woods. We each had a 2 BR family cabin and the Purcell’s also had one – we had our own cul de sac – perfect spot. We unloaded and drove to Miami to meet up with Grace. It was a perfect sunny Friday afternoon and all the coeds were out sunning and enjoying life. We took a nice tour of the amazingly beautiful campus and headed back to Hueston Woods. Claire, Corey, Jack and Sophie arrived about 5 minutes after we got back and we quickly settled in to cocktail hour, enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon. Seamus, JP and pals all came over and Dennis and Penny who also rented a cabin for the weekend all came over for cocktails and a great dinner of Mom’s sloppy joes. We started the bonfire that stayed going for most of the weekend and relaxed in front of the fire. Jim, Patty P, Colin and Owen arrived around 8:00 or so. All the older kids took off for the bars around 10:00 and us old folks hung out around the campfire. Kathryn didn’t arrive until after 11:00 as she was with Shea at volleyball in Columbus.
I love the green wall at Wolf Ridgeits vacation when you’re drinking beer for lunchenjoying the beautiful Miami campus on a perfect afternoon
Our beautiful coedbeautiful girls (selfie of me in Grace’s sunglasses)cocktail hour – awesome spread from my parentswe played a lot of bocce during the weekendhappy to be togethersloppy Joe timeso it begins…the best
Saturday, April 28th, 2018
Jack and I were both up early and got the fire going as it was really cold. It dropped about 20 degrees overnight. Everyone was really slow getting up and we didn’t really eat breakfast until around 10:00. The Purcell’s took off to campus to walk around and we went for a nice hike through the woods towards the lodge. We hung out at the lodge for awhile, played some ping pong and found out we could get $50 off per night because grace had A’s last semester. What a deal. Early afternoon we went to downtown Oxford and went to Steinkeller and had some great German beer, potato pancakes and pretzels. Dennis, Penny and Seamus met us there as well. Claire, Corey, Jack, Grace and I continued our day drinking expedition and went to Brick Street where hundreds of Miami faithful were having a fun Saturday afternoon. We met up with Rachel’s parents there as well and the Meaney’s were there too. We headed back to the cottages and got the fire going and happy hour under way. We ended up with about 30 people for dinner – grilling hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, salads, macaroni and cheese. Nice spread. Celebrated Mike’s birthday. Fun time. We stayed up too late enjoying the fire and good cheer.
sitting by the fire early morning in my slipperschilly morningsquad in front of the lake. – what a good looking group!hiking through the early spring woods
ping pong in the lodge…and pac man… yeahhhhhgood German beer at Steinkeller…and bloodiesdouble fisted at Brick Street…with a few of our friends.college
Jack just HAD to stop at skyline on the way back
bonus points for the tumbler full of Manhattan
group shot with hot dogsgrilling success story – 20 hamburgers and 30 hot dogs and brats…and some steaks for the birthday boy
cousinsgirl cousins
serious gaming behind the cabin
Happy Birthday!!dusk
Sunday, April 29th, 2018
We roused everyone up and gathered everything up. We had some breakfast casseroles, Penny brought bacon and sausage and we had a good breakfast on a sunny morning. We were all packed up and hit the road around 10:00 for the long ride back to CLE. Great weekend. We scored big time earlier this week and were able to reserve three cabins for graduation in May 2019. Apparently everything sells out in less than an hour so we were really lucky to get through.
Courtney, Sophia and myself left home at 6:30AM happy to be going back to the beach. We arrived at Decatur AL at 5:30PM. It rained the entire drive but wasn’t too bad. We stayed at the same Doubletree on the river as last year – in a nice big suite. We had dinner at Big Bob Gibson’s – our favorite north Alabama BBQ spot. I had Brunswick stew, pulled pork, greens and baked beans. Courtney and Sophie each had good platters and all was great. I had iced box lemon pie and Sophia had peanut butter pie and bought three bottle of their white BBQ sauce. I was asleep by 8:30PM.
great stuff at Big Bobslemon ice box piechilly evening in Alabamasigns of spring
Friday, March 30
We left the hotel at 7:30AM and arrived in Grayton Beach around 1:30PM. We headed directly to Red Bar as we had a couple of hours to kill, and the place was hopping. We had a few beers at the bar waiting for a table which is just fine! I had fish and chips for lunch, Courtney had some delicious smoked tuna salad and Sophia had a chicken sandwich. We stopped at house to drop off some stuff and then went to Publix to stock up for the week and checked into our house right at 4:00PM. They were very particular about check in time. We liked the house. Perfect. We moved stuff in and then I took of to pick up Claire and Corey at Panama City Beach Airport – 35 minute drive. Their flight was on time and made it back in no time and had late dinner of pan fried burgers, tater tots and key lime pie – of course.
chillin at the red barfirst of many sunsets
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Claire, Corey and Courtney went to the bakery that we like around the corner as well as stopping at the grocery store again. We had cinnamon rolls, scones and some GF goodies for breakfast. We headed down to the beach where it was sunny and nice and started our daily routine: beach, lunch, beach. Tough life. Courtney and went to Goosefeathers during lunch break and got some nice looking grouper for dinner as well as shrimp and smoked tuna dip. The kids headed to Seaside for pickles pre-dinner which was super crowded and taken over by teenagers. It stayed that way unfortunately all week. Our house had a great patio looking over the state park land looking west so we got the late afternoon sun and sunset – excellent cocktail hour spot that we enjoyed all week. We had grilled grouper for dinner that was fabulous. We played dominoes after dinner to finish a great first day.
full moon in the early morning
Sunday, April 1st, 2018
We had chocolate and jelly beans for breakfast to celebrate Easter – and a few other things. Sophie and I biked into Seaside after breakfast. The bike path between Grayton and Blue Mountain was under construction which forced us onto the road in that section which was a pain. But it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Amavida line was way too long so we just walked around enjoying the sunshine. The rest of the day was all beach on a beautiful Easter Sunday. We steamed shrimp and grilled chicken for dinner enjoying the patio in the evening and not eating until late. We caught the second half of Jesus Christ Superstar on TV that I thought was really well done.
Our favorite courtyard in Seaside
Seaside redid the main walkway down to the beachat a little shop in Grayton Beach
a beautiful day on the beach
Monday, April 2nd, 2018
Courtney and I biked to Seaside early morning. Stopped at Amavida and walked around. We biked all around Watercolor. Claire and Corey biked later in the morning and went out to lunch at the Oyster bar. Otherwise it was another beautiful day on the beach. We went to the burger bar for dinner which was packed. We were waiting at the bar for a table and ended up just ordering food and ate at the bar which was fun.
assuming the positionI love vacationgood sand castle day
sunburned kneestelling secrets at the burger bar
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2018
It was a foggy morning but cleared up pretty quickly and turned into another beautiful day. The previous days sand castle was still there so we added on for another good showing. Just another perfect beach day and stayed down until 6:00. We had tacos for dinner and tried to go out for ice cream but everywhere was too crowded.
love the beach this time of day……so does Sophie
Wednesday, April 4th, 2018
A strong storm blew through early morning and it rained pretty steady all morning. We decided to go to the Destin outlets around 10:00. So did everybody else. Big mistake. The traffic was horrendous and the outlets were packed. We tried to stop for lunch at Stinky’s and Perfect Pig but both were too crowded. We ended up at Black Bear, a new place in Grayton Beach which was very good. Courtney and I split carrot soup with shaved beets et un sandwich du jambon. Sophie’s friend from school whose family was staying a few miles down the road met us at lunch and spend the day and night with us. Miraculously it cleared up in the early afternoon and lo and behold it was a great afternoon on beach. We had a great dinner of grilled rib eyes, baked potatoes and more key lime pie.
another beautiful evening on the patio
perfect
Thursday, April 5th, 2018
It was a chilly morning. Courtney and I went for bike ride around Watercolor, through the back ending up at Publix and going back through a crazy busy Seaside. Way too crowded. We didn’t go down to beach until 11:30 or so. Another nice day. Super calm and hot even though it was in low 70s. We stayed down beach until 4 and then went to Seaside for shrimp, oysters and fried pickles. We had late night dinner of boboli pizzas and then played cards against humanity.
my favorite blanket
one of or favorite spots at Seasideoysters were small but tastyClaire getting one more sunset in
Friday, April 6th, 2018
Courtney and I went on an early walk on the beach. It was a beautiful morning once again. Clear water and blue sky. We spent the whole day down the beach with a quick break for lunch. We drove Claire and Corey to the airport around 4:00. We ended up going to dinner at a place called Boon Docks off the bridge by the airport just following a sign that was there. It turned out to be nice – on the harbor with nice view and lots of seafood. We had fried shrimp, oysters, grouper and more fried pickles. It was a good find. We got home and packed everything up as we were planning to leave at 3:00AM for the long drive home.
beautiful light in the early morning
Saturday, April 7th, 2018
We left Grayton Beach at 3:00 AM and drove all the way. 16 hours. Harsh but we did it with no troubles. It was another great stay in FLA.
Biographical Fiction (is that a genre?) of the story of Christina in Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting “Christina’s World”. Going back and forth from the time Wyeth painted the painting to the back story of Christina’s family. Original, intriguing and hard to put down.
A good take on french toast casserole. We just used skim milk with a little whole milk we had leftover, a loaf of Italian bread that was getting stale and we didn’t have any blueberries …and it was great.
Cinnamon Baked French Toast; Ree Drummond
Butter, for greasing
1 loaf crusty sourdough or French bread
8 whole eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup whipping (heavy) cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces, plus more for serving
Warm pancake syrup, for serving
1 cup fresh blueberries, for serving
For the French toast: Grease the baking pan with butter. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and store in the fridge until needed (overnight preferably).
For the topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and some nutmeg in a separate bowl. Stir together using a fork. Add the butter and with a pastry cutter, and mix it all together until the mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a re-sealable plastic bag in the fridge.
When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the casserole from the fridge and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture or for 1 hour or more for a firmer, crisper texture.
Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with warm pancake syrup and sprinkle with blueberries.
Two families living in Shaker Heights: haves vs have nots; artists vs consumers; mean mothers etc etc. It’s nice to read a novel full of Cleveland references but I was disappointed in the novel overall due to the continuing changing points of views and the very unlikely plot and charachters.
I had a bad year in 2017 in terms of reading. I only read 21 books which is pretty bad. I blame Donald Trump you MFer. 2018 will be better. My Absolute Darling has been on many top lists for 2017, has been on my waitlist forever but I found a copy at the library. I read it in one day which in itself results in a good rating. Any book you can’t put down is good in my book. But the subject matter is so awful and so violent I second guess myself. It’s also pretty amazing that it is the first novel for this author.
The smoked tuna dip and mussels were new recipes and both were great. Here’s a couple Xmas Eve photos and recipe for the mussels – great because you can make them totally ahead, pop them under the broiler when ready to serve and they’re super tasty.
Xmas eve mass… church asked everyone to take photos before mass startedposing girls
Owen was the Xmas Even entertainment
opening presents
Xmas jammies 2017girl power
Mussels Stuffed with Spinach and Parmesan
Fine Cooking Issue 14
1 cup dry white wine
4 Tbs. finely chopped shallots
1 tsp. cracked black pepper
4 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme (omit if fresh isn’t available)
28 medium mussels (about 2 lb.), sorted and cleaned
for the stuffing:
2 Tbs. butter or olive oil
2 cups lightly packed, washed, stemmed, and chopped fresh spinach
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tbs. chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Combine the wine, 2 Tbs. of the shallots, pepper, parsley sprigs, bay leaf, and thyme in a pot (with a lid) large enough to accommodate the mussels when their shells have opened. Bring to a boil, add the mussels, cover, and steam until just opened, 2 to 3 minutes. Try not to steam the mussels longer than necessary, because they’ll be cooked again later. Remove the mussels with a slotted spoon and set aside. Strain the cooking liquid through a strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth and reserve.
For the stuffing—Heat the butter in a heavy-based pan. Add the remaining shallots and cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the spinach, cover, and cook briefly until the spinach wilts. Uncover and cook until the liquid from the spinach evaporates, another 3 to 4 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the strained mussel liquid and cook until the mixture is almost dry, about 5 minutes. Add the cream and again cook until the mixture is almost dry, about 10 minutes. Add the chopped parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper; the mixture should be quite peppery.
Heat the broiler. Remove the mussels from their shells. Make a bed of rock salt or crumpled foil on a baking sheet (to steady the shells) and arrange as many half shells as you have mussel meats. Put a mussel meat on each half shell and spoon a teaspoonful of the spinach mixture over each. Top with the grated cheese and broil until golden and bubbly, 4 to 6 minutes. Serve with small forks and bread to soak up the rich juices
12/2017 note: I made a double batch – with about 4 lbs of smallish mussels – way over 100 – and two reg bags of fresh spinach. I ran out of spinach for the last bit so would make more spinach next time.
Courtney and I went on a long weekend trip to southern Ohio to celebrate her birthday. Leaving Sophie and Jack at home we headed south stopping at Heinen’s in Strongsville to stock up for the weekend. We stopped at the new Ikea in Columbus and stayed for about an hour and a half checking it out, just buying a few things – our typical Ikea items. The checkout lines were horrendous – would have skipped the whole place if we knew we would have to wait for so long. We headed to downtown Columbus and had lunch at Wolf’s Ridge Brewery. Nice place and ended up having brunch. Their coffee and vanilla infused beer was a keeper. I brought a six pack to bring home. We headed down to Hocking Hills area which was just about an hour from Columbus. We stayed in a cabin at Chalets in Hocking Hills. It was a good choice – all the cabins were private, seemed nice and only a minute or so from the state parks. We settled in, tried out the hot tub and quickly got into relax mode. We made steak, baked potatoes and salad for dinner and hung out for the rest of the evening.
enjoying beers at Wolf’s Ridgeour cabin
11/12/2017
After a good nights sleep we drove to the state park which was just five minutes away. We went on a vigorous hike from Old Man’s Cave to Cedar Falls – about six miles and it took us 2 1/2 hours. It was a cloudy day in the low 40’s but quickly warmed up as we started walking through the woods. There were very few people parked when we started and we only ran into people a few times. The area is beautiful with huge ravines, hemlock forests, mossy caves and waterfalls. We especially liked Cedar Falls area that felt prehistoric and the walk from there back to Old Man’s Cave was through the ravine and pretty amazing. We went back to our cabin after our long hike and took a nice long hot tub soak, had lunch and relaxed for a few hours. We headed out to an area called Rock House around 3:00 and just hiked about an hour around the area. After walking down into a huge ravine there was a huge cave that you could walk into that was like a rock house. Pretty cool. Made it back for a quick cocktail and then went to dinner at the Inn at Cedar Falls where we had a great dinner. It’s a nice relaxed but classy atmosphere and food was great – we both had salad and then I had rack of lamb with cous cous and great roast carrots, Courtney had pistachio crusted scallops with risotto and we split a pumpkin creme brûlée for dessert. All very good. Quickly crashed at home after a long day.
We had the trails to ourselfit quickly turned into a beautiful dayCedar FallsCedar Falls… all to ourselves
made it back to Old Man’s CaveRock Housewe were there at the golden hour which was great for picture taking
11/13/2017
We went on another 5 mile aggressive hike in the morning, starting at Ash Cave, going to Cedar Falls and then back. Beautiful scenery again and we had the trails all to ourselves other than the trailheads where there were just a few people. Found a fire tower towards the middle of the trek – we started climbing up but changed our mind about 1/3 of the way up as it was pretty scary. We relaxed the afternoon away not doing much of anything besides hot tubbing, reading and sleeping. We ended up not turning on the TV once which is always a good sign. We cooked ravioli for dinner and went to bed really early.
thinking about it…birthday girlAsh cave
11/14/17
We took off around 9:00 from our cabin and decided to drive home through Amish country as we wanted to check out a place that sold sheds that we heard about. It was interesting driving through all the little, mostly depressed towns. Trump country for sure. The shed store didn’t impress us much but we did stop for lunch at Der Dutchman which is always the best reason to go to Amish country. We also stopped at Lehman’s and got a few things. Got home without any trouble and after getting unpacked we decided to run downtown to see if we could get lucky at the Wicked lottery. Sure enough… Courtney’s name was drawn so we lucked out and got 2 $25 tickets box seats right up front. We hung out at Masthead for an hour having beer and pizza and then saw Wicked which was great once again.
we drove by the Loggerberger HQ building somewhere in the middle of OH.winner winner
Biographical Fiction (is that a genre?) of the story of Christina in Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting “Christina’s World”. Going back and forth from the time Wyeth painted the painting to the back story of Christina’s family. Original, intriguing and hard to put down.
mean mothers etc etc. It’s nice to read a novel full of Cleveland references but I was disappointed in the novel overall due to the continuing changing points of views and the very unlikely plot and charachters.
I had a bad year in 2017 in terms of reading. 
